Friday Five - self care

It's already Friday!  This week has seemed to have flown by.  I'm looking forward to the weekend but first, it's time to link up with Mar, Courtney and Cynthia for the Friday Five!  This week's theme is fitness but I'm going to think of fitness in the larger sense and talk about some things I've been doing to work on my emotional fitness recently.

1. Food - Before the Summer, I had been eating out a lot and a lot of it was junk.  I've really been making an effort to eat at home more.  And of course, Summer makes that easier when there is so much great produce around.  It's better on my wallet and waist line, but I've also noticed that I just all around feel better when I'm in charge of what I'm putting in my body.

Homemade gazpacho, delicious and refreshing!

2.  Step away from the scale - I have also been obsessing over the scale.  Like getting on it multiple times a day obsessing.  It's not healthy for me mentally and I am making a promise to myself to stop.  Instead, I'm going to concentrate on things that make me feel good like being active and eating well.

3. Friends and family - Another thing that's been really fulfilling lately is spending more time with friends and family.  I've had a lot of high quality social time in July and I feel great about that.

 NYC with friends

4. Solitude - But I'm also trying to listen to my body and what I need.  I'm an introvert at heart and there are times I just need to be alone and have quiet time.  So I sent Mike off to happy hour with friends along yesterday.  I skipped in favor of staying at home with a book and music.  And this weekend, the two of us are planning to take a day trip to a local bay beach.  We went last year and got there early, which was lovely.  There was hardly anyone at the beach and enjoying the sand andthe water with little crowd was soothing to my soul.

Last year at the same beach

5. Kitty cuddles! And of course, Kitty cuddles always work to make me feel at peace.

Though Perry wasn't happy to have to share my lap with a computer

I have to keep reminding myself how much better I feel when I think of fitness as a holistic thing and prioritize my mental and emotional fitness as well as my physical fitness.  Sometimes things get busy and it's hard to keep that front of mind, but I've definitely been working on it in July and plan to continue it into August.